Lobster Shop — Restaurant in Tacoma

I mean come on guys. It took me 30 minutes...to decide on an entree because I live in Nebraska and I don't have good seafood aside from the three sushi spots that order direct from New Tsukiji. LobShop as I will maybe call it again has a perfect sized menu, seasonal catches, fantastic service (although the GM/AGM/Lead host/older person walking the floor gave us some stink eyes, maybe our young people clothes weren't matching the rustic aesthetic.) The younger host was super friendly and helped us to our table, and our server Dario was like, 9/10 perfect on service. Never waited too long, never had bites in our mouths when he touched the table, friendly and really opened up to us once he was comfortable loosening up a bit. Would be an easy 10 but that'd require taking him home with us.

Our table enjoyed specialty mocktails and a couple cocktails, all were delicious, refreshing and SOMEHOW each worked with a different seafood pairing, something I've never been able to perfect in my days. Each was well rounded such that you'd never miss the booze. I hate mojitos due to bartender guilt (sorry) but my berry fizz mock paired lemon with sweet and sour notes, a light carbonated finish gives a little spritz

•Australian lobster tail, served shell off for ease of shoving in your face hole. I never ball out. Why? I should treat myself. Perfectly cooked, came out warm despite the rest of the plates needing much longer ticket times. The chef, expo and everyone in between have got it on lock. Fingerling potatoes cooked perfectly, asparagus was asparagus in October, what do you want? That's nobody's fault. Maybe throw some butter on it but I was dipping everything in the cream sauce and it was fantastic. The other dishes included: • A crab cake that was so good I'm never attempting to recreate it. Crisp outside, moist inside, hot as the oil it came from and SOMEHOW also still stayed juicy. Rocket salad with pickled peps and a vinaigrette was a great refresher following the somewhat heavy and creamy crab cake. • Crab dip with baguette- okay. Dario. We gotta talk. Y'all keep ruining my favorite dishes by telling me there's a much better version 1,622 miles away. Much. Better. I've had crab of near every variety prepared in near every style and this, in a dip, stood out more than most. (dungeness I got u 😉) •Cedar plank salmon: This got finished before I had a chance to look up. I took a bit of the thin end of the fillet and even from there, the worst part of a fillet to base judgment on, it had a crisp smoky grilled outer, staying tender and still juicy on the inside. •Scalloped potatoes come in a leaning tower of starch-a formation, almost like baklava or lasagna, but potatoes, so immediately better. I didn't get to try these two sides but I hear they were "AWMUHGuhhh."

I don't like desserts. Sugar doesn't play well with me. The table had sweet teeth, though, and ordered the crème brûlée and GF chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream.

•Gluten...free... chocolate...cake. Four words that are usually surrounded by "Ugh Chef the lady at 8 needs a GFCC on the fly" with some obscene gesture. It was good. Cakey. Light. Ice cream was the star.

I'm weird. You know that. So...my favorite crème brêlée is from the Ameristar Heritage Casino Buffet in Council Bluffs, IA. Where the same station has phó broth, BYO tacos and pizza. Why is there pizza on the grill? That's not for me to ask, since it keeps getting eaten faster than it's put out.

•What were we talking about? Right. Tacoma. LobShop. Dario. Crême brülēe. A tenth of a point off for the center of the brùlēe being too soft to crack with the long spoons provided. That's my favorite part of the crémèe brúlē at the casino buffet. I think they boil and broil their ramekins because that top is half an inch thick of crunchy sugar. LobShop wasn't such in the center, however, the outside satisfyingly shattered when I went for a bite. Delicious. Not too sweet, which I appreciate. Not too custardy, either. Just a really nice finisher to an otherwise big meal.

We...

I recently went to dinner at The Lobster Shop with my daughter, and it was an exceptional experience. We were seated by the window, overlooking the water. It was a relaxing and beautiful setting that added to the overall ambiance.

Our waiter was attentive and amazing, ensuring that our dining experience was top-notch. She helped make our dinner perfect.

We decided to get a variety of dishes, and we weren’t disappointed by any of them.

We decided to get several appetizers because we couldn’t decide on just a couple.

• Oysters: Fresh and briny, they were a delightful start to our meal.

• Crab Cakes: Perfectly crispy on the outside, with a plentiful flavorful crab filling.

• Lobster Bisque: Creamy, rich, and full of lobster goodness. One large chunky lobster piece centered the dish.

• Clam Chowder: Hearty and comforting with a lot of clam pieces throughout the chowder.

We then moved on to entrées. It started with an amazing warm bread loaf and a garlic herb oil for dipping.

• Lobster Tagliatelle: A decadent treat. A flavorful sauce with a perfectly al dented pasta. It was accompanied with 5 oz. of lobster meat which was amazing.

• Surf and Turf: It was the best of both worlds—tender filet mignon cooked to a perfect medium rare. The succulent lobster was accompanied with some sort of creamy butter sauce. It was the perfect dipping sauce not only for the lobster but also the steak. The dish also came with asparagus, squash and an amazing thinly sliced potato stack with sour cream and chives.

• Creamed Spinach: A large portion of decadent spinach cheese and cream. It can easily be shared with two or more people.

We then dove into the desert portion of our dinner.

• Strawberry Shortcake: A sweet and buttery dish made with savory biscuits and sweet hearty strawberries. An amazing desert.

• Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée: Classic and satisfying. It was a little looser than I like but the taste was still amazing.

Overall the portions were extremely generous (we had quite a bit of leftovers)! The food was well worth the price, and I highly recommend The Lobster Shop for both lunch and dinner. I’ll definitely be back for another culinary adventure in the...

Food:

My husband and I ordered the grilled lobster ($100) filet mignon ($65) lobster raviolis ($25-30) and Mac ($12)

The filet is the only dish that comes with sides, which was pate and asparagus. Even though the chef put the lobster on a separate plate the filet, the server removes the lobster from the shell in front of us and puts the lobster on the same plate as the steak. So not only did the steak bleed all over the plate, it soaked into the lobster and all the sides.Also, typically you pour lemon and butter on your lobster, which was also all over the plate. So steak blood and butter in the plate.

•the lobster was VERY rubbery. Had to use the actual steak knife to cut it. •the Mac and cheese had little to no flavor, which is wild to me, i don’t know how they accomplished that. •the pate was ok. Seems like they were more concerned with aesthetics than flavor, mashed would’ve been a better choice. •the asparagus was soggy, as you can imagine. •and the sauce they gave to dip the steak in was awful, like when they reduced it it burned. It tasted old and bitter. •the steak was good, just wish they had better sauces to pair it with or even a choice of sauces. •Lobster ravioli was good but not enough to justify the price.

Now to the service. I can tell you right now, our server looked at 2 people of color who asked for bread after getting drinks (even though the table behind us was given bread without asking) and assumed we were going to be cheap. This is the problem with restaurants that automatically take a tip, the service suffers and the servers now have to depend on people to spend more to get a good tip.

He made several sarcastic remarks to us. Treated us like idiots. And assumed when we POINTED TO THE GRILLED lobster on the menu and repeated 3 times we wanted the grilled lobster, that we wanted the tail (that was significantly cheaper)

He then exclaims “OH!!” Once he realized it was going to be a substantial check. His attitude changed…slightly. When he put that lobster in my plate and didn’t separate it like the chef intended, it was either out of ignorance or the fact that he didn’t like us to begin. After all, tip...